News 2016

Three, four-man crews from Middle Tennessee Electric are on their way to Florida to join efforts to restore power in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. 

The workers and nine trucks  departed from the electric cooperative’s Murfreesboro office  Friday; their destination is Keystone Heights, Fla., where they’ll be assisting Clay Electric Cooperative in restoration efforts. 

“We got the call yesterday asking if we could send crews to assist as Hurricane Matthew headed toward the U.S.,” said Chris Jones, MTEMC president and CEO. “MTEMC and a number of other electric cooperatives in Tennessee are responding to that call.” 

Jones said MTEMC’s line crews are often eager to help when situations are at their worst. 

“It is amazing to watch these guys when they know people are in need,” he said. “That’s when they’re at their best. We’re very proud of them.” 

The Middle Tennessee Electric crews will be joined by approximately 80 volunteers from electric cooperatives from across the state. Some of the cooperative volunteers are being dispatched to Charleston, S.C., while the majority will continue on to Florida.

“As cooperatives,” Jones said, “one of our core values is assisting other cooperatives in need. If we had a bad ice storm, you can bet these cooperatives would be there to help us if we needed them.”
 
The last time MTEMC was asked to assist in the wake of a hurricane was in 2011 after Hurricane Irene tore through Fredericksburg, Va. Prior to 2011, crews were sent to assist in the restoration efforts after Hurricane Gustav ravaged Louisiana in 2008.  
 
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative providing electricity to more than 214,000 residential and business members in Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford, Cannon and surrounding counties.

The American Conservative Union (ACU), the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization, this week announced that State Representative Mark Pody (R–Lebanon) is among those legislators recently honored with the Conservative Union’s prestigious “most conservative” award.
 
The award is only presented to those members of the Tennessee General Assembly who scored at least 80% on the ACU Tennessee 2016 State Legislative Rating and who most consistently vote with the ideals articulated in the Tennessee and U.S. Constitution. 
 
“I am honored to be presented this award by the American Conservative Union,” said Representative Pody. “I am committed to working with my colleagues in the Tennessee General Assembly to lower taxes, cut government waste, and help create an environment in our state where businesses can grow and thrive. I am thankful for organizations like the ACU who recognize the work of our conservative Republican majority and look forward to advancing our shared Tennessee values even further in the upcoming legislative session.”
 
To view the Tennessee ratings guide, visit http://acuratings.conservative.org/state-ratings-2016/ and click on Tennessee.

Despite what some might believe, Cannon County government is not broke.  However according to the State of Tennessee Comptroller and Treasury Department, Cannon County is in a financial management crisis but depending on when revenues start generating in, the crisis might be short lived.  The State Comptroller’s office has not yet approved the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget.  They have until November 30th in order to do so.  Cannon County Executive Mike Gannon called a special meeting with the Cannon County Commissioners last Friday to inform them they had enough money to meet this months payroll for county employees but not enough to pay any other bills or expenditures.  The meeting was announced Monday.  In the meantime the State of Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury mailed a letter to the County Executive’s office which was received Friday afternoon after lunch.  The letter states that We as in the State of Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury understand that as of the end of August 2016, Cannon County government had spent 20% of its fiscal year 2017 annual appropriations.  At this rate of spending, the County will not have enough money to meet its expenses through the end of this fiscal year.  Cash flow forecasts for the General Fund provided by the County indicate that it spends more than its receipts for seven out of twelve months.  As of the end of September, the County has already borrowed $920,322 in tax and revenue anticipation notes, which represent 18% of its projected annual cash receipts and are required to be repaid prior to the end of the current fiscal year.  Additionally, the County has to begin repayment of over $1,000,000 it spent from debt service monies restricted for education.  Due to its continuing financial distress, the County has now requested additional borrowing authority for operational expenditures.  
The Comptroller’s office believes Cannon County is at a crossroads.  The Commission needs to take immediate action to control the County’s spending and overall financial situation.  Without strong, decisive action by the Commission, the County will spend more money than it receives during the fiscal year 2017 as it has every year since fiscal year 2012.
Based on the above, an pursuant to the authority of Tennessee Code Annotated, the Comptroller directs the County Commission and other officials to take the following actions to ensure compliance with the statutory cash basis budget requirements and to successfully manage the financial affairs of the County:
The County’s finance staff shall provide budget-to-actual and cash flow reports for all major, special revenue and enterprise funds at each regular meeting of the County Commission and furnish copies of these reports to the Office of State and Local Finance.
The County commission shall adopt a budget police approved by the office of state and local finance that requires it to maintain a balanced cash basis budget that only allows spending if cash is available or is approved by the office of state and local finance.
The County Commission shall adopt a cash management police approved by the OSLF
The County Commission shall determine with the assistance of the OSLF the level of cash necessary to provide working capital sufficient to maintain a balanced budget and the County Commission shall cease improper interfund borrowing from its debt service funds to finance general government operations.
The letter concludes with if the County chooses to not follow these directives, the Comptroller may take such other action deemed appropriate including, but not limited to, exercising his authority to take control of the County’s spending.  
County Executive Mike Gannon went over the letter with the Commissioners during Friday’s meeting.
It’s no secret that the majority of the revenue that Cannon County government runs on is produced by property tax.  Each penny of property tax is expected to bring in $20,000.  While expenditures of county government is expected to increase each fiscal year, revenues must be planned to cover as close to the estimated expenditures for that fiscal year as possible.  
Expenditures of County Government are expected to increase every year.  Several factors come into play whether it be State mandated raises of the County’s leaders, judges and employees or health insurance costs.  Different county departments may have needs for new equipment or emergency vehicles.    Revenues from property tax generally don’t start trickling in until the start of November after the property values come in and the tax cards are made.  So where does Cannon County get the money to operate from the time they pass the fiscal year budget till the property tax revenue starts to come in?  Normally a county would be able to operate until the time of the property tax revenue in generally a two month window from the rainy day fund which at one point Cannon had built up to close to a $1.5 million dollar balance back in 2010.  Now the fund balance at the end of the 2016 year was $269,688.00 which is not enough to fund the government over a three month period.  According to County Executive Mike Gannon and the State Comptroller’s office the county would borrow from its debt service fund to finance the operations and when the revenues from the property tax came in they would repay debt service.  This was perfectly fine with the State Comptroller’s office until the office changed their policy in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.  The State now wants every county to have a healthy fund balance at the end of the year to take care of those expenses until their revenue comes in.  The State now frowns on a county borrowing money from its debt service fund.  When the fund balance was a healthy one back in 2010, the commission at that point voted to spend that fund balance down which was a concern voiced several times by some of the commissioners who served at that time as well as County Executive Mike Gannon.  So instead of raising the property tax a penny or two each year to help pay for the expenditures, the County was forced to whittle down their general fund balance during the months they needed to cover expenditures before the revenue would come in.  Several years according to the letter the county’s expenditures ended up exceeding revenue since there was no property tax increase to help pay for those expenditures.  Even though the fund balance is expected to be $289,795.00 at the end of the fiscal year, the County will still have to take $10,800 out of fund balance to cover the expenditures.  County Executive Gannon stated the other issue wasn’t really an issue in the long run as in the letter it mentioned the County has to begin repayment of over $1,000,000 it spent from debt service monies restricted for education.  That wasn’t necessarily a mistake, Gannon contends.  The state of Tennessee auditors approved of the way it was done for close to a 20 year span.  Past county commissions and several county executives were following what they were told was right.  But after the state changed their mind, they are allowing Cannon the opportunity to correct it in a 10 year span instead of all at once.  The big advantage of this, Gannon said is that the school debt will be paid off sooner and after the final payment is made the wheel tax will decrease $40.
County Executive Gannon also said that the property tax rate can not be touched until next fiscal year.  The County Executive’s office will be meeting with the State’s County Technical Advisory representatives this week  to discuss the various options of raising revenue and covering expenditures  to satisfy the State’s newer requirements.

The Industrial Development Board of Cannon County will meet Monday October 10, 2016 at 6:00 PM at the Rustic Elegance Event Center located at 1751 Doolittle Road Woodbury, TN.

The public is invited and encouraged to attend. We hope to see you there!

Only three more games are left on the Cannon County Lions High School football schedule and none of them will be easy.  Despite being a 2-A program, their opponent tonight Middle Tennessee Christian School has made it look easy winning 6 out of 7 games.  The Cougars feature a dual threat quarterback that the Lions have to contain if they want to have a chance to come back from Murfreesboro Friday night with their third win of the year.  The Lions have struggled offensively gaining just a little over 100 yards in their homecoming loss to Smith County last week.  The Cougars are coming off an upset loss to Forrest which shows they are human but are playing in front of a home crowd in Murfreesboro.  Football Friday begins at 5:30 with Murphy Fair and Murphy’s Matchups.  From there we head to hear from Dennis Weaver and previews of high school football matchups throughout Middle Tennessee on Friday Night Thunder at 6:00.  At 6:45 its the Reeds Builders Supply pregame show followed by the kickoff of the game at 7.  You can hear the game live from Murfreesboro on AM 1540/ Shine 107.1 WBRY and online at wbry.com
 

Normally the Cannon County Car Cruise-ins happen at the final Saturday of the month but since the sun sets earlier toward the end of October the October cruise in is Saturday. Final Cruise-in of the season—this is a toy drive cruise-in benefiting Cannon County children on the Angel Tree Program at Christmas. DTC will be awarding the 32 inch TV to cruisers who have participated in the cruise-in’s all year (you must be present to win) and Iron Pig Antique’s will give away a quilt. All cars, trucks and motorcycles are welcome, anyone can donate a toy, The Cruise in will take place  on the Square in Woodbury from 3 to 6:30. This cruise in is sponsored by Jennings Jewelers, contact John Barker at 615-542-4065 or Chamber of Commerce at 615-563-2222 for further information.

A Cannon County woman is charged with TennCare fraud in nearby Rutherford County in a case involving prescription drugs.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) earlier this week announced the arrest of April Smotherman, 43, of Woodbury. She is charged with five counts of TennCare fraud relating to doctor shopping, which involves going to multiple doctors in a short period of time to obtain prescription drugs. Smotherman is accused of doctor shopping for the painkiller the painkiller Hydrocodone.  She turned herself in to authorities at the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.
“Unauthorized use of TennCare to obtain prescription drugs is a serious crime we are pursuing every day across the state,” Inspector General Manny Tyndall said. “The Office of Inspector General is committed to ensuring TennCare benefits are not abused in this manner so that we preserve the program.”
District Attorney General Jennings H. Jones is prosecuting. As of July 1, 2016, TennCare fraud was changed to a Class D felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
The OIG, which is separate from TennCare, began full operation in February 2005 and has investigated cases leading to more than $3 million being repaid to TennCare, with a total estimated cost avoidance of more than $163.6 million for TennCare, according to latest figures. To date, 2,739 people have been charged with TennCare fraud.
Anyone can report suspected TennCare fraud by calling 1-800-433-3982 toll-free from anywhere in Tennessee, or visit the website and follow prompts that read “Report TennCare Fraud.”

A free food giveaway will take place Saturday in the parking lot of the First Methodist Church 502 West High Street.  The giveaway will start no later than 10 in the morning.  Everyone is invited to come and take advantage of this giveaway.  This will be a drive thru distribution.  Cars should line up on High Street coming up the hill from College Street.  Each car will be directed through the parking lot of First Methodist and out through the First Baptist Church parking lot.  There will be a limit of food for two families for each car in order to ensure that those at the end of the line receive food.  For more information about the food giveaway contact the church office at 563-2135.

Sounds of music fill the air tonight at the Cannon County Senior Center on Lehman Street as the music band Cripple Creek will perform.  Doors open at 6 with the performance to start at 7.  Admission is $5.00.  Light concessions are available for purchase.
 

A Lascassas woman was arrested recently and charged with Driving Under The Influence.  According to Sheriff’s Department Reports, Deputies were dispatched out to Wood Church off of Short Mountain Road concerning a person driving recklessly and yelling out the window of her car.  Upon arrival the person had already left the premises heading in the direction of the Dekalb and Cannon County Line.  After Deputies caught up with her, the suspect 52 year old Ms.Christy Carlene Wimberly of Lascassas had blocked the roadway of Gunter Hollow Road.  Then once the deputy activated his blue lights, Wimberly put her vehicle in drive headed towards the county line.  Finally she stopped in a church parking lot.  As the deputy approached, Wimberly stuck a hat out of the window that showed a Navy emblem.  She made sure several times to point out that her father was in the Navy.  Wimberly failed the field sobriety tests and was arrested and charged with DUI 1st offense.  She will answer to the charge November 1st in Cannon County General Sessions Court.